Related Online Exclusives

HBA session focuses on innovative products especially for women.

By Melissa Meisel
Associate Editor

Intimate care for women by Sweet Spot Labs

It’s a clandestine topic for most but an essential concern for many: intimate care for women. However, three brazen female industry entrepreneurs, each aiming to put the personal back in personal care, presented their product lines to a packed conference hall at the HBA Expo 2007 in New York City.
Moderated by Danielle Romano of popular beauty e-newsletter DailyCandy.com, the panel consisted of: Nancy Jarecki, founder of BettyBeauty, Inc.; Shari Creed, founder/CEO of Sweet Spot Labs, Inc. and Kathleen Williams, founder of Anticipation Products.

The first to speak was Ms. Creed, who has worked with Aveda and Bath & Body Works as a brand expert. Sweet Spot Labs, Inc. is her latest project, as Ms. Creed “wanted to go where big business won’t go”—intimate care for women.

“This is an entire category in the beauty industry that is being overlooked,” said Ms. Creed, who noted that in marketing products, the top three words that trigger sales are “free,” “sale” and “sex.”
“But what about sexual wellbeing? This is something that crosses over every socioeconomic group,” Ms. Creed told a quizzical crowd. “Plus, women have different needs at different ages.”

Enter Sweet Spot Labs, Inc., who makes products for women to smell “fresh, clean and fabulous.” Ms. Creed’s collection features products such as a citrus galbanum cleanser and basil grapefruit on-the-go wipettes and is sold in over 500 stores. “We’re the voice of the 21st Century woman,” said Ms. Creed.
The next presenter was Ms. Jarecki of BettyBeauty Inc., a marketer of all-over body hair color and a recent winner of the ICMAD CITY Awards for Personal Care Product and Website Innovation.

The creation of BettyBeauty, Inc. was a true “When in Rome…” situation. While vacationing in Italy, Ms. Jarecki was visiting a beauty salon and noticed many patrons leaving with little gift bags. Curious, she inquired as to what was in the bags and was told it was extra color for any additional dyeing needs.
“Is there a market for this extra color?” Ms. Jarecki thought to herself, and conducted a variety of market tests to find out. Turns out, there was, and the concept of BettyBeauty, Inc. was born.

Ms. Jarecki met with an advisor to go over dye choices and “FDA-inspired effects” for personal color. “This is where I learned about terms such as ICMAD, HBA, viscosity and turn-key,” quipped Ms. Jarecki at the lectern. To learn more about the market, the entrepreneur then started attending HBA sessions. She soon reached out to a handful of color companies and found her source—Hair Systems of New Jersey.

To launch the line of personal color—available in shades of blonde, auburn, black, brown, “fun” (a hot pink) and the latest limited edition red color for Valentine’s Day, “love betty”—Ms. Jarecki took a booth at Cosmoprof 2006 to market her product. When she arrived, about 50 women of all ages stormed her booth saying comments such as “Finally, there’s a product for us!”

The final speaker at the special HBA conference was former chef/life coach Kathleen Williams, who was there to present her “tasty skin care and massage line,” Anticipation Products.

This second-year HBA attendee is a proponent of food-based topical products, as “60% of what we put in our skin goes right into our bloodstream.”

In step with the naturals trend, Ms. Williams’ line features nutraceuticals, “a great way to achieve healthy beauty.” Her company, Anticipation Products, recently launched in February and features items such as a “berries on ice” massage gel and a clementine shimmer powder. The products tout natural ingredients such as royal jelly and babassu oil and are sold in high-end spas all over the U.S.